This transformation of the 130-year-old baths originally opened in 1878 on land reclaimed from the sea right underneath Hastings' Victorian promenade was the brainchild of Rich and Marc Moore, owners of The Source BMX a highly successful BMX online and e-commerce operation.
The resulting £1.25m subterranean project is one of the largest skate parks in Europe, 600 ft. long and kitted out with a variety of state-of-the-art ramps and obstacles for skaters and BMX enthusiasts of all abilities and levels of experience.
Funded by The Source in conjunction with the local borough and county councils and the Regional Growth Fund, it's been an instant success with the urban sports community and adrenaline lovers locally, nationally and internationally.
The Source BMX has been a Penn Elcom customer for some time, primarily for assorted AV and lighting requirements. When the skate park project was in its infancy two years ago, Rich asked Penn Elcom's Rob Platt if the company could propose a lighting scheme. Rob engaged lighting specialists Nigel Howes and Razvan Vassiliu and the three worked as a team to design and specify a lighting solution for the park's retail areas.
Before the park opened, The Source BMX, had a small shop space down a nearby side street, so with development of the new site, this was moved and dramatically expanded.
The Penn Elcom team suggested LED for its cost saving, longevity and low maintenance, putting forward a combination of products from their own Comus proprietary product range and premium brand Osram.
It was important that the main lighting emulated daylight, so 32 x Comus 600x600 cold-white LED panels with a 5700K colour temperature were chosen and installed in the celling of the shop area. They give the impressive crisp, even, high-impact skylight effect required.
The display cases needed a completely different approach, so to highlight and accentuate their shaping and depth, they are outlined with Value Flex VF600-G2, a flexible Osram LED product - for which Penn Elcom is a distributor. The daylight option at 6500K was chosen to best match the cool white appearance of the LED panels.
In addition to the lighting, Penn Elcom also supplied a large quantity of birch plywood to the project to build the skating ramps and BMX tracks, a task undertaken by 9C Solutions from Horsham.
Normally Penn supplies this to flightcase manufacturers, but the flexibility and durability of the wood makes it perfect for this application.
A quantity of Comus cables and Neutrik connections were also delivered by Penn as part of their package for use with various AV elements.
Rob Platt comments, "We are extremely proud to be involved in this project which is unique in the world. Rich and Marc have really pulled off something extraordinary in converting the disused and neglected old baths into a thriving hub for anyone into skating and BMX'ing. It's no understatement to say that The Source will change Hastings."
(Jim Evans)
